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Stunner: WVU upsets Kansas

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia turned the building that had been a House of Horrors for the Mountaineers since they joined the Big 12 Conference into its very own Fun House Tuesday afternoon as they squandered all of an 18-point lead but pulled off their first victory in Allen Fieldhouse, 62-61, as Javon Small made one of two free throws with 1.8 seconds left.

With all the odds stacked against WVU, they ended a string of 33 consecutive conference opening wins for Kansas with a pulsating victory in first-year coach Darian DeVries’ first Big 12 game.

WVU had dropped all 12 games it had played in Lawrence.

It was a gutsy performance by the Mountaineer players as they executed a brilliant game plan from DeVries.

Consider what WVU had to overcome to win this one:

–The team didn’t arrive in Lawrence until 2:30 in the morning due to mechanical problems with their plan

–WVU was without two of its three top players as Tucker DeVries remains inactive with a shoulder injury and Amani Hansberry, a big whom the Mountaineers were counting on to draw Kansas star Hunter Dickinson away from the boards with his 3-point shooting ability, spent the game with a sprained ankle in a walking boot.

–WVU had to beat not only the nation’s No. 7 team on its home court, but they had to shake off an officiating imbalance that ended with the Mountaineers taking just six free throws to 21 for Kansas.

And, while on the subject, free throw shooting was supposed to be the Jayhawks soft underbelly, ranking among the bottom five teams in the nation in free throw shooting, but they stayed alive by making 19 of 21 in the game.

WVU had seven more field goals than the Jayhawks but had to go to the final buzzer to win it.

“I’m proud of the guys’ efforts, especially with the circumstances … the injuries, the travel,” DeVries said after the game. “Like we talked about, there are no excuses in this program. We are going to line up and go complete. This atmosphere is everything it was made out to be, but like I told them, they are not playing for them

“When we’re out on that floor it’s our five against their five and nothing else matters.”

And that’s just how it was.

Incredibly, on a home floor where the veteran coach Bill Self had lost just 18 games in his entire Kansas career and won almost 92% of his games, Kansas never had the lead and drew even only with 16 seconds left.

With Eduardo Andre setting the tone early, scoring 12 first-half points, WVU jumped in front in what was a nearly perfect half of basketball, taking a 33-20 lead over Kansas.

The Mountaineers installed some new double screen sets that confounded KU star center Hunter Dickinson, who was forever picked off pick and roll plays.

“First 25 minutes the guys did an unbelievable job of staying composed, staying within themselves,” DeVries said. “We decided from a game-plan perspective to slow the game way down because we didn’t think we could run with them in this business and wanted to keep the crowd out of it as much as possible.”

The result of that was stunning as Kansas, a team made to run, held just a 4-2 lead in fast break points for the 40 minutes of play.

The lead to 18 in the second half as almost every WVU player had his moment, from the freshmen Jonathan Powell and KJ Tenner, to Toby Okani, to Sencire Harris, to former Kansas player Joseph Yesufu who hit two key 3s down the stretch, but in the end it was the team’s star player, Javon Small, who wound up saving the day.

When it was over, Small had 14 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and the key shots at the end.

“What a gritty effort by Javon,” DeVries said. “I sat him 45 seconds in the entire game. He was exhausted and should have been.”

DeVries had prepared him for it.

“I told him before the game ‘We need you to have the ball in your hands. We’re going to put all this on you because you’ve been here before, you’ve done this, you’ve been in these environments and we trust you to make these decisions. He did all of that. Eleven rebounds was great and there was a monster one late in the game that we really needed.”

But it was offense that he had when necessary as Kansas roared back. With WVU leading 57-53 and 2:23 left, Small made a move, slipped to the floor, kept his dribble alive, got to his feet and threw in a baseline jumper at a tough angle to make it 59-53.

And then, with the crowd roaring at 108 decibels after Kansas had banged its way back to even at 61-61, Small put a move on the Kansas big freshman Flory Bidunga and got him off his feet, then rose up for what he hoped would be a game-winning shot.

The officials had to blow their whistle here as there was clear contact and, with 1.8 seconds left, Small missed the first of two free throws, then made the second, allowing WVU to take home one of the school’s most amazing victories ever.

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